Lebanese politicians and clergymen have condemned on Monday the riots between Christians and Muslims in Egypt, with some labeling them as being part of an American agenda to fragment the region, while others viewing them as an impediment to democracy.

Hizbullah voiced in a statement “its great pain and sorrow over the developments in Egypt”, saying they are part of the American agenda bent on “completely fragmenting the region along religious and racial lines.”

Judge Sir David Baragwanath has been unanimously elected President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and Presiding Judge of the Appeals Chamber after Judge Antonio Cassese resigned on health grounds, the STL said Monday.

Cassese will continue to serve as a Judge of the Appeals Chamber, it said.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel stated on Monday that the parliamentary electoral law that was agreed upon with the committee charged with devising a new law “does not resemble the old one any way shape or form.”

He said during a press conference: “An electoral law based on proportional representation is the best solution for Lebanon.”

Speaker Nabih Berri urged officials not to issue a final judgment on the 2012 draft state budget because he said it could be amended during discussions at the cabinet or parliament.

Berri told As Safir daily published Monday that the draft has some positive and negative aspects. Among the negative articles is a proposed 2 percent hike in Value Added Tax. VAT currently stands at 10 percent.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said on Monday that most officials discussing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon are missing out on its purpose which is related to justice, stressing that the silence over the Syrian infiltration in the eastern Bekaa valley can be considered a “national treason.”

“They are tackling it (the STL) from a technical point of view, but it is a moral compensation to the millions who lost their beloved ones… To stop the political crimes and to establish the civil peace,” Geagea told al-Joumhouria newspaper.

The General Labor Confederation was on Monday gearing up for a strike that it plans to hold later in the week as its demand for more than doubling the minimum wage is not likely to be approved by the government and business leaders.

GLC President Ghassan Ghosn told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) that labor unions would hold the nationwide strike on Wednesday if its calls for increasing wages to LL1,250,000 did not receive any support.

The March 14-led opposition warned against any attempt by the March 8 forces to obstruct the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, An Nahar newspaper reported on Monday.

High-ranking opposition sources said that March 8 is “trapping” PM Najib Miqati to subject the funding issue to vote in the cabinet or turn the file into the parliament.

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun stressed on Monday that his parliamentary bloc fully rejects the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in a stance that he described as independent from the position of other parties.

“No to the funding of the court no matter what the stance of our political allies are,” Aoun told An Nahar daily in an interview published Monday.

General Security Chief Abbas Ibrahim visited Syria on Sunday to offer condolences for the Syrian Mufti on his son's assassination last week.

The Mufti appreciated the condolences, and said that the Syrians are paying a high price on "our positions which support the resistance."

Progressive Socialist Party Leader MP Walid Jumblat said on Sunday that "a general assembly shall be held towards the end of the current month, where clear political words will be uttered regarding the past, the present and the future positions of the Party; in addition to organizational issues."

During a swearing in ceremony of new PSP members in Shwaifat, Jumblat said that "the party achieved transition from the former organizational structure to a new one."